June 6th Recap

First, at the Town Council meeting at 6:00 p.m., years of hard work from various organizations and community members paid off when the Town Council took a huge step towards adopting the District 2 (downtown) land development regulations by voting to approve them at the first ordinance reading.

They made a few minor tweaks, such as removing short-term rentals from the workforce housing incentive, lowering the parking requirements, and in response to concerns from downtown property owners, directing staff to create a diverse stakeholder group to monitor these regulations once they officially go into place and make sure they are working. Overall, these new rules will help house our community’s middle class, help our small businesses find and keep hard working employees, and keep downtown vibrant and the heart of our community.

Dozens of people gave passionate public comment in support of housing solutions and in support of the District 2 ordinance.

The Town Council now needs to go through the 2nd and 3rd ordinance readings (June 20 and July 5) before the new regulations are officially adopted.

This result is the culmination of years of hard work. A huge thank you goes out to the community members, small businesses, and organizations who spoke up on this issue and got us to the point we are at today, and to the Town Council for continuing to move forward with the regulations. We look forward to participating in the stakeholder group and helping to ensure these regulations work for our community moving forward.

Earlier in the afternoon on June 6, the Town Council and Board of County Commissioners voted on a resolution allocating the Community Priorities Fund (which directs where the revenue from the sales tax measure on the November ballot will go) to 50% housing and 50% transportation. While ideally the Community Priorities Fund should include a wildlife and open space component, housing and transportation are two huge issues facing our community and are both highlighted in our community’s Comprehensive Plan and in the Alliance’s AGENDA 22. We appreciate our elected representatives taking steps toward addressing these challenges.

If you want to get involved with the Alliance on issues like these moving forward to protect the wildlife, wild places, and community character of Jackson Hole, sign up to volunteer here.